London: Nirav Modi, arrested on Tuesday for his involvement in the PNB scam case, told a UK court that he was working in London for a salary of 20,000 pounds (Rs 18 lakh) per month.
The diamantaire also showed salary slips of 20,000 pounds and his National Insurance (NI) number as proof that he was paying tax.
Modi was arrested by the Scotland Yard and produced before a District Judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London to be formally charged. Modi was picked up from a metro station Holborn, central London.
“Nirav Deepak Modi, 48, was arrested on behalf of the Indian Authorities on Tuesday in Holborn,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
His arrest came days after a London court issued an arrest warrant against him in response to a request by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his extradition in a money laundering case.
Modi was produced before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where he contested his extradition to India.
His bail plea was rejected by the court. District Judge Marie Mallon, presiding over the hearing, said that she was not inclined to accept Modi’s bail plea due the “high value amount” attached to the allegations against him and that he would have “every incentive” to evade surrendering before the court.
There are substantial grounds to believe that you would fail to surrender before the court if bail were to be granted,” the judge noted.
Modi, dressed in a plain white shirt and trousers, appeared in the dock where he spoke only to confirm his name and also to formally decline consent to be extradited to India.
Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, are the main accused in the PNB scam and they both left India before the details of the fraud came to light in January 2018.
Modi is one of India’s richest men, worth an estimated USD 1.75 billion, according to Forbes. He launched his own eponymous brand in 2010 and he soon had stores across India, as well as in New York, London and Hong Kong.
His diamond-encrusted designs were worn by Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Naomi Watts, while the Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra-Jonas appeared in advertisements for the brand.
His jewellery shops were raided and his assets frozen after the allegations emerged last year.